That's the other extreme though.
There's a middle ground that http://reaper.fm/ uses. You buy the current x and x+1 versions. Then you pay for the license again for x+2, x+3 if you want to. The price is very reasonable and there's no subscription as such. If you're happy with the old major version, you can use it as long as it continues to work.
It is of course necessary to make ends meet and plenty of software shops do just fine with the business model of making a good product and charge for upgrades.
> You can stay on Windows XP to avoid that, would you?
People do. But realistically either you'd upgrade your computer since XP was sold and get a new license included, or just pay for the update once in almost 2 decades. I don't get the issue you're trying to point out.
You get all of whatever version you start on (Even if you start at x.99), plus the next, and then your license is done unless you renew it. So no matter what, I don't get updates after 6.99 unless I renew.
Most of what I do music-wise nowadays is making songs live in Ableton Live on Twitch, and I rarely bother to take them to a "produced" state, so what I have in the current Reaper is plenty. I probably won't upgrade, but I'll keep recommending it.